Cropped 9 September 2026: Blocked COP | Borneo fires | ‘Fruitless clashes’ on nature and economy

09.09.26

By:

Aruna Chandrasekhar, Daisy Dunne

This is an online version of Carbon Brief’s fortnightly Cropped email newsletter.

We handpick and explain the most important stories at the intersection of climate, land, food and nature over the past fortnight.

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Key developments

Floods, fires and El Niño

LOSS AND DAMAGE: Two weeks after the Himalayan floods, remote communities remained “cut off from food”, per the Hindu. Nepal’s disaster authorities estimated the floods “washed away” more than 1,800 hectares of farmland and could disrupt food supplies, the Kathmandu Post wrote. The Guardian reported that Nepal sought “$20m in climate compensation” from the UN’s fund for loss and damage, with foreign minister Shishir Khanal saying the amount was “obviously not nearly enough to cover the damage that we have sustained”.

BORNEO FIRES: On Indonesia’s island of Borneo, BBC News reported that Indigenous volunteer firefighters are “risking their lives” amid an “inferno that has carbonised some 200,000 hectares of forest and farmland” since early July. Experts blamed the ongoing El Niño and limited firefighting equipment alongside “climate change, decades of forest degradation and land-clearing”, said Agence-France Presse. Wildlife campaign organisation Geopix estimated that wildfires have “impacted about 60% of Bornean orangutan habitat”, reported Down to Earth.

100% EL NIÑO: The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said its forecasts “show a nearly 100% likelihood that El Niño will continue through February” 2027, reported Al Jazeera. WMO chief Dr Celeste Saulo said: “If this trajectory continues, it may be stronger than anything since our monitoring began.” A Financial Times editorial said: “The combination of climate change and El Niño means the world must be better prepared for recurring, substantive shocks to food.”

Desertification COP concludes

DRY ON OUTCOMES: At the UN desertification talks, which concluded on 28 August, countries failed to adopt a new “drought protocol”, while several key decisions were postponed until the next COP, reported Earth Negotiations Bulletin. It added that the conference saw an “unprecedented number of agenda items” blocked from consideration. Esther Penunia, secretary general of the Asian Farmers’ Association, said in a statement: “The failure to adopt the drought protocol means no guaranteed funding and no legal requirement to act for two more years: it’s every country for itself.”

SHUT OUT: On the very first day of the talks, the US objected to “including items on gender, on civil society participation and on synergies” between the land, climate and biodiversity conventions, reported Down To Earth. The outlet added that civil society and Indigenous coalitions that had been approved at COP16 were “never operationalised, leaving Indigenous peoples and local communities without the standing they had been promised”. It described this “setback” as “more than procedural” for frontline communities facing drought and desertification. 

RANGELAND RECOGNITION: The conference established a $1.2bn Rangelands Flagship Initiative across 45 named projects, which a UN statement described as “the largest single mobilisation” for rangelands in the land convention’s history. Down To Earth noted that rangelands cover more than half the world’s land surface. Countries also formally recognised pastoralists as “essential stewards” of rangeland ecosystems and the importance of “transboundary mobility”, a long-fought-for acknowledgement, it added. 

News and views

• BEEF VS FORESTS: Beef production in Brazil causes “one-quarter of global deforestation”, according to new analysis by Our World in Data. It estimated that “around 85%” of this deforestation was to meet domestic demand, while China and the US are the “largest importers” of Brazilian beef.
• CHEESE SQUEEZE: With nearly 10% of French farms “in a precarious situation or at risk” due to this summer’s heat and drought, France’s agriculture minister announced that the country will spend more than €1bn “to​​ help farmers cope”, reported Politico. It also announced an easing of cheese production rules after farmers said “extreme heat had scorched their pastures”, said the Guardian.
• SOLAR FARMING: California lawmakers approved a “farmland-to-solar” bill last week, reported the Los Angeles Times. The bill would “make it easier for farmers in water-stressed regions to convert croplands to solar projects”, wrote Climate Colored Goggles. Meanwhile, policymakers across Africa called for greater investment to “power food production with renewables”, according to Climate Home News. 
• PARK RULES: Sri Lanka’s Yala national park – famed for its leopards, crocodiles and water buffalo – will ban tourists from its “busiest areas” as part of emergency drought measures to protect animals, reported Reuters. In India’s Assam state, opposition leaders questioned why protections were removed for wildlife corridors after “reports on rare earth elements in the vicinity”, said the Hindu.
• MISSED DEADLINE: More than half of EU nations have missed a deadline – established by the EU’s nature restoration law – to publish a national restoration plan, reported Euractiv.
• CORAL COUNTDOWN: Coral reefs globally are “running out of time” to recover between successive marine heatwaves, according to a major report covered by the New York Times. Meanwhile, coral trafficking is “booming”, said Mongabay.

Spotlight

UK told to avoid ‘fruitless clashes’ over nature and economy

This week, Carbon Brief covers a warning from the outgoing Natural England chair against “fruitless clashes” in the UK about the “false choice” between restoring nature and boosting economic growth.

The UK must overcome “fruitless clashes” about the “false choice” between restoring nature and boosting economic growth in order to meet its goals, the outgoing nature chair has said.

Dr Tony Juniper, chair of Natural England, the UK’s official environmental adviser, said some political forces and newspapers are attempting to “foster a culture war” about “whether nature or economic development is the priority”.

He said that this narrative does not “have much reality behind it, because we have a vast body of data that reveals how nature is vital underpinning for economic development in every sector of the economy”.

A report from the world’s nature authority launched in Manchester earlier this year said that the “undervaluing” of nature is fuelling its decline and putting the global economy at risk.

Nature ‘not supported’

Juniper was speaking at an environmental audit committee meeting marking the end of his seven years as Natural England chair. (The environmental audit committee is a cross-party group of MPs that scrutinise the UK’s environmental efforts.)

He told the committee that, over that time, he has not always felt “supported” by the government in his duty to protect the UK’s environment.

He said he has worked under six prime ministers – including four Conservative and two Labour leaders – and that “it’s fair to say that the appetite for nature recovery has varied between them”. He added:

“If I think back to the period when we had the strongest backing, it was when Boris Johnson was prime minister. During the period since, we’ve had changes to the emphasis placed upon this. And, as I say, quite a lot – especially over the last few years – this very strong presentation of that false choice that we should either pursue development of the economy or we should look after nature.”

When questioned by the committee, he added that he chose to step down rather than being forced to resign.

The Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has begun the process of hiring his replacement.

Juniper was joined by Natural England chief executive Marian Spain, who is also stepping down.

She told the committee that the agency’s approach to restoring nature has changed “radically” over the past few years, shifting from not just thinking about nature for its “own sake”, but for its “vital contribution to the nation’s growth, health and security”. She added:

“But the way we receive our funding, the powers we have, and the legislation framework we work under is not changing as fast as we might want it to.”

Watch, read, listen

HARD TALK: Writing in the Financial Times, UN biodiversity chief Astrid Schomaker called on governments and corporations to “banish the misconception” that biodiversity finance is “charity”. 

BUSINESS AND BIODIVERSITY: The Nature Pledge podcast spoke to Prof Ryo Kohsaka about the first-ever global assessment on business and biodiversity.

A PLACE ON EARTH: In a tribute to writer, activist, thinker and farmer Wendell Berry, who passed away last week, Orion Magazine put together some of Berry’s key works.

HOME IN THE HIMALAYA: Himal Southasian reviewed Anuradha Roy’s novel Called by the Hills, which it said “challenges the idea of nature as refuge”. 

New science

• Despite climate change increasing species richness of plants in alpine ecosystems, local extinctions “rose with the magnitude of warming” over the past 21 years across 62 European mountain summits | Science
• Climate-induced loss of seaweed forests is eroding their carbon-sink capacity “between 1,000-10,000 times faster” than it can currently be restored | PLOS Biology
• “Large-scale wetland restoration” would increase methane emissions, but would also increase soil-carbon storage and prevent emissions from drained soils, leading to an overall reduction in global greenhouse gas emissions | Earth’s Future
• Temperatures during periods of extreme heat in the Amazon have been increasing at a much higher rate than the rainforest’s average temperature since 1981 | Communications Earth & Environment

Noticeboard

• 7-11 September: UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Climate Week, Baku, Azerbaijan 
• 8-22 September: UN General Assembly, New York 
• 10-11 September: Ocean and Seas Summit, Trabzon, Turkey
• 25 September: Registration closes for review experts for working group one of the IPCC’s seventh assessment cycle
• 4 October: Brazil general elections
• 30 November: Countries can submit protected area data to meet the Global Biodiversity Framework’s 30×30 target